A jaguar, the largest cat native to the Western Hemisphere, was caught early last year south of Tucson, and subsequently died. Federal officials and environmentalists do not know of any others roaming the United States.
If this is true — if the large cats really have disappeared from the landscape — why are representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expected to announce Tuesday whether they will designate a protected habitat for jaguars in this country?
Environmentalists argue that if the territory of jaguars, an endangered species, is given special protection, it will help build the large cats’ population in this country, drawing jaguars that are more prevalent in Mexico and Central and South America.
But the Fish and Wildlife Service decided in 1997 that giving jaguars a protected habitat was “not prudent,” because they were already scarce in this country.
Once an animal is put on the endangered species list, federal law requires that the agency create a plan to rebuild the population and declare its environment as critical for survival. But the service can forgo those steps if it determines the habitat will not help preserve species, the law says.
Officials reopened the matter in 2007, after two environmental groups — Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity — sued the federal government and asked Fish and Wildlife to reconsider its initial decision.
“Like all imperiled animals and plants, jaguars need their homes protected,” said Michael Robinson, a conservationist for the Center for Biological Diversity. Since “critical habitat has shown to be extraordinarily successful,” he said, it’s “not surprising” that the jaguar population did not improve.
The government was forced to reconsider its decision after federal Judge John M. Roll ruled against the service’s original decision that the designation of critical habitat for the jaguar was not practical. Roll concluded that the service didn’t use “the best science available.”
The agency, Robinson explained, did not consider the breadth of land the jaguars once roamed here. Historically, jaguars have lived in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and elsewhere in the southeastern United States.
Now, few if any jaguars roam locally, and much of the habitat that is truly critical for the species’ survival is in Mexico and Central and South America, Fish and Wildlife officials said in court documents.
Attorneys for the service could not be reached for comment.
The lack of jaguars in the United States is hardly in dispute. There have been only four sightings of the large cat since 1996, and Fish and Wildlife representatives contend that these individual jaguars are simply using the area for foraging and not as a permanent habitat.
The jaguar last sighted — a male cat nicknamed Macho B by officials of the Arizona Game and Fish Department — was caught last year in southern Arizona and fitted with a tracking collar. Soon after, he experienced kidney failure and was euthanized. No other jaguars are known to live in the United States.
Fish and Wildlife officials were originally expected to decide by Jan. 8 whether to give jaguars a protected habitat, as designated by Judge Roll in March. But the service asked for an extension until Tuesday to coordinate with its national branches and finalize its decision on a recovery plan.
The delay “didn’t seem to make too much sense,” Robinson said. “They had a long time to meet this deadline.”